St. Louis police shooting: Protests turn violent for third day

TIL Desk/World/Chicago/ Protesters hurled debris at police in St Louis, Missouri today and smashed store windows as demonstrations over the acquittal of a former police officer in the shooting death of a black man turned violent for a third straight day.

“Agitators are breaking multiple windows at Olive & 10th. Officers are heading to scene,” said on its Twitter account. Hundreds of protesters earlier staged a “die in” outside a police headquarters and marched through St Louis before returning to the headquarters building.

Peaceful demonstrations had turned violent on the two previous nights, with the city on edge since Friday’s acquittal of white former police officer Jason Stockley.

The case — the latest high-profile incident of police using violence against a black suspect — has touched a nerve in St Louis, where racial tensions were heightened by the 2014 killing of a black man, Michael Brown, in the suburb of Ferguson by a white police officer.